Using a simple hand hammer and a chisel, the Knappen excavated the narrow tunnels that characterise the Taubenleck mine, in the Bletterbach gorge. It was the end of the 15th century and these skilled miners of German origin concentrated their efforts in layers rich of carbonised tree trunks, at the base of the Val Gardena Sandstone, one of the rock formations in the Bletterbach gorge.
All this work for some old coal, you might wonder? Actually, what those miners were after was not the coal itself, but the copper contained in the same layers as the coal. These geological layers characterised by the presence of carbonised tree trunks are a real treasure chest. Some of those found in San Lugano, in the municipality of Trodena, not far from here, contained a rare mineral, discovered for the first time ever in 2016 in Southern Australia and named “middlebackite”. Investigations were conducted by the MUSE - the Natural Science Museum in Trento - in collaboration with the Ecomuseo Argentario.
To do: Want to find out more on the magical world of minerals? Visit the MUSE in Trento, the Science Museum in Bolzano, the GEOMuseum in Redagno or the Geological Museum in Predazzo.